With Oak Park High School nearly reaching its maximum capacity of 1,500 students, a seemingly trivial issue arises – the availability of lunch tables. Attending club meetings, doing homework and enjoying conversation with friends are just a few of the ways students spend their lunch break. Regardless of how they spend their 35 minutes, something all students search for is a spot to sit.
Temperatures in Oak Park range from 71 to 81 F in October, so finding a shady spot is crucial to enjoying the lunch break.
“The sun kills this time of year,” sophomore Ishanvi Ghelani said.
Recently, canopies and tables were installed near the ping pong tables to address this issue. These new shady seating options have become quite popular amongst students.
“We sat here on the wall before they put the tables and canopies,” sophomore Brooks Galvan said. “[The new canopies] are really nice, a lot more people sit here now that there is shade. It’s getting a little crowded but there are still some open tables.”
The administration’s attempts to have more shade at school have been appreciated, but still need workshoping.
“I feel like OPHS has done a lot, but they could add more shady areas,” sophomore Lisa Mandadapu said. “I get that they already added the canopies but it’s really crowded over there. So maybe more space would be nice.”
OPHS’s almost fully outdoor campus leaves little to no indoor seating for students, but some teachers open their classrooms during lunch, providing students with air conditioning and seats.
“The cold classrooms are nice when it’s hot outside,” Mandadapu said.
Still, a majority of teachers either spend their lunch in break rooms or want a little peace in their day, so few classrooms actually are available to students. This leaves students searching for a comfortable space with shade and enough space to accommodate their whole group. Many look towards the turf as their solution.
“We sit on the turf a lot, we’re always there at nutrition,” Ghelani said.
A daily seating routine at lunch or nutrition can make students feel grounded in their school day. When talking to students about their seating choices, shade was brought up the most.
“All my friends are here [at the table], it’s also nice and shady,” junior Royce Willis said. “There’s a place to actually sit, you don’t have to be all weird on the grass.”
“The tables are nice, the shade’s nice,” junior Grant Rosen said. “It’s relatively close to the class I have, [it] just kind of works.”
Other groups have found their lunch spot above the steps of the basketball courts.
“I feel like this is a very quiet place, there’s still people around, but it’s peaceful,” sophomore Aditi Jain said. “I feel like if they put more shade spots in quieter spaces then I would definitely sit there.”
Lunch can be an invaluable part of school–dispersing accumulated stress from previous classes and providing an opportunity for socializing. To maximize the positive outcomes from this time, students need to have a nice place to actually sit.
Space, shade and a quiet surrounding are what students value the most when it comes to lunch spots. In the future, maybe we’ll see more administrative initiatives, like the canopies, that help contribute to better lunch spots around campus.
